


Life Model Decoy

by RainbowArches



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-28
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-03 22:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2890712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowArches/pseuds/RainbowArches
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She was collateral damage, as far as Pierce was concerned. Technically, he hadn't killed her, but that was beside the point.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life Model Decoy

She was hunched over the kitchen table, indulging her grief over the dead copy of herself by reading over and over again the invented life story of a walking, talking doll. A doll with enough of herself programmed into her to make her real, to make Sonia feel like Renata again. They never felt more connected than right now. Ironic, given that the whole idea of sending Renata to spy on Pierce was to not lose Sonia if something went wrong. She’d sat in this kitchen every day for a year and a half, monitoring and controlling the clone’s every move. Renata wasn’t Sonia. Sonia wasn’t Pierce’s housekeeper. Renata was a clone, a robot. She wasn't a real person. She was an it, disposable. Apparently Pierce had agreed.

The Renata version of her moved to America three years ago. She was a widow. She had three kids. Director Fury met her when she got caught in the crossfire of a Shield mission that left her unemployed. He sent her to Pierce, who needed a housekeeper. He could pay her well and wouldn’t get too invested in her personal life. Sonia named her Renata, after her original identity; it was easier that way. But she never referred to her as Renata. At first she’d been an it. Somewhere along the line she became a she, but never Renata. A copy, a clone, the other version, the housekeeper. Nothing too specific or personable. She’d always felt like she was playing with a remote-control, sitting in her protective bubble that was the Director’s kitchen, while her copy cleaned Pierce’s apartment and scanned for anything useful or suspicious.

Sonia had been a housekeeper once, back when her name was Renata. Well, she doubled as a housekeeper. Her employers sent her back and forth, trading state secrets through her, figuring she was harmless because she was young and poor and scared, and would do whatever they asked if she had a will to live. It drew Fury’s attention and she jumped into his open arms. He made it very clear that she was under Marcus Johnson’s protection, not Nick Fury’s and not Shield’s. Her name was Sonia, not Renata. As long as she kept that in mind, her previous employers couldn’t trace her. She was eighteen at the time. That was nearly thirty years ago. She had a child somewhere, from one of those employers, who would be turning twenty-eight. Sonia sometimes wondered if Fury had suspected something even then. The reason it had been so easy to get Renata into Pierce's apartment was because he knew nothing about Sonia. She had no connection with Shield or Nick, as far as anyone knew.

Sonia wasn’t sure what exactly triggered the sudden sense of loss when Renata died. It could have been the imagined life with her kids. Maybe it was the innocent persona she projected. It was probably the way Peirce so easily disposed of her, as if she was nothing. That’s how Sonia thought of her until then. Not as nothing, but not as a person. That’s how everyone thought of Sonia once; nothing. It was scary. Scary to think that could have been her. Scary to think that that _was_ her. Scary to think that she’d so easily dismissed herself like Pierce had. She wouldn’t think like that anymore.

She felt a hand squeeze her shoulder before it reached over her to close the file.

“Don’t read that,” said Nick, sitting next to her. “It won’t help.”

“It might.”

She didn’t open the file again though. Nick was right. She knew everything there was to know about Renata. She’d written the biography. She couldn’t possibly know her any better; there was nothing else to know. All she’d lost was a rewritten version of herself played by an artificial body. She wasn’t a friend or a housekeeper or a mother. There was no reason to miss her. But Pierce didn’t know that. As far as he knew, Renata was a real human being with kids and a home, whose job it was to look after him, and he shot her like she was nothing. Her loss was nothing more than an inconvenience for him. She shouldn’t be surprised. She knew he was dangerous, she knew not to buy into his charm, but she did anyway. She thought he was nice, in a detached sort of way. Didn’t make her feel bad for spying on him, but it still hurt to know what he thought of her.

“She wasn’t you.”

“So?”

“She was an invention. Like an imaginary friend. That’s what Pierce killed. She wasn’t real.”

“Yes she was.”

She understood why Nick had to say that. He’d lost a lot of people. Maybe he wouldn’t have lost them if he’d noticed sooner, if he’d acted sooner, if he did this or that differently. There was no way of knowing what might have been, and they shouldn't dwell on it. But at least Sonia was still here. He couldn’t let himself think of the copy of her that Pierce had shot as a person, not when the original was miraculously sitting right in front of him. Nick was just sore about getting Pierce wrong, was probably still in and out of denial. He missed the friend he thought he had, the man who wouldn’t have killed his maid, who wouldn’t have thought of her as collateral damage, the man who might have bothered to ask how the kids were doing.

“Yes she was,” he conceded. He put his hand on hers. “And you know that. You know better than him. That’s the important thing.”

“She might have been me. She _was_ me. He didn’t even care. Didn’t think twice about it.”

“He’s dead; you're not. And if you're not dead, than neither is she. The body's gone, but the person is still…” he trailed off. She thought she knew what he was trying to say, but she stayed quiet anyway, waiting for him to continue. “She’s still you. She's not dead, just growing.”

She supposed that was true. Renata had become an extension of herself, someone that Sonia sometimes wished she could be. Renata was what Sonia might have become if her hand hadn’t been forced, if her survival had not been so dependent on people who didn’t care about her. Then again, Renata had died because Pierce hadn’t care about her. Sonia was still alive because Nick cared about her. There were things Renata had that she coveted, but she must have made the right decision. She probably had things that Renata coveted anything, if she'd been able to think like that. She didn’t feel any less bitter towards Pierce, but she was beginning to feel a sense of triumph over him.

“I keep thinking about her kids.”

“There are no kids.”

“I know,” she snapped. “I just… I keep thinking I have to tell someone that their mother isn’t coming home.”

“I’m sorry.”

She gave him a look that she hoped was forgiving. She didn’t want to be mad at him. He’d taken such good care of her. As far as he was concerned, Renata was alive and well and sitting right in front of him in the form of Sonia. He hadn’t been in charge of the housekeeper, hadn’t had a chance to grow protective of her the way Sonia had.

“It’s not your fault,” Sonia told him.

“Well, it’s not yours either,” Nick said sternly.

She stared at the file for a second, before pushing it towards him, resigned. He folded his hands on top of it, regarding her as he slipped into business mode. “What are you planning to do now?” he asked.

She shrugged. She felt nervous that he was asking. Was he going to leave her out in the cold? She thought she had his protection, but that was when he had Shield's resources. Maybe they were both on their own now.

“What are my options?”

“You could come with me.”

She must have looked surprised, because he immediately amended that with, “Or I could give you a new identity and you can find work elsewhere. I thought you might like to try finding your daughter. She won't be in any danger if you do, not anymore. Hydra won’t know about her.”

She raised her eyebrows. “She?”

He sucked in his lips, like he’d accidently let something slip, but she knew he never said anything without extreme deliberation.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I’m going to Europe, finish what I started. Interested?”

She leaned back, giving him her full attention instead of staring glumly at the table. “My daughter is there, isn’t she?”

“Yes. I can help you get settled, if you want. You don’t have to look for her, of course. You don't have to stay with me. It’s entirely up to you.”

She’s always been curious about her child, and now she knew it was a girl. She didn’t think she wanted to meet her, but she did want to learn about her. Maybe she’d check in, from a distance, unless she changed her mind. And she couldn't pass up the chance to avenge herself.

“What’s her name?”

“Lonna.”

Well, that was incentive enough to go with him. He said she could do what she wanted, but he clearly wanted her to join him, and she didn’t really want to leave him. They’d been together for too long; they had a responsibility to each other now.

“I have to pack my things.”

He beamed at her. “Pack light. We’ll be on the road a lot.”

It would be good to work through her own body again. No more remote control. Renata had been the first functional LMD, but she required a lot more maintenance and supervision than the more recent models. She didn't have to worry about that anymore. She needed to relearn her own body, stand on her own two feet for the first time in a while, help Nick get back on his. She wanted her life back. She pulled Renata's file out from under Nick's hand. She'd keep it. She wasn't sure what for; a reminder, a keepsake, a gift; she didn't know. But she'd keep it.

 


End file.
